RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show – my favourite Show Gardens

This is a smart, modern garden for a contemporary home. Various levels and layers of planting and hard landscaping surround a dining terrace with a cantilevered cedar table. Gabions are surrounded by copper and packed with split timber, which helps to encourage wildlife.

Clipped box lawns are used as alternatives to grass, with one of the lawns supporting a cedar water channel that cascades into a copper pool beneath.

The planting has large drifts of verbena, nepeta and lavender, with a colour palette of purples and blues to create a cool atmosphere on a hot summer’s evening.

Essence of Australia evokes the relaxed feel of Australia and the Australian love of outdoor living, and celebrates the beauty and diversity of the flora and landscapes of Victoria and the Northern Territory.

The design takes inspiration from the Rainbow Serpent, an iconic creature from Aboriginal culture that is often seen in Aboriginal art and continues to be an influence today. As visitors follow the Rainbow Serpent deck, they are inspired to envisage the diverse natural attractions and landscapes of Australia, including rock seams and outcrops where endless roads delve deeper into rich Aboriginal culture, red sands and an amazing array of Australian plants.

This garden by The One Show competition winner Alexandra Noble has been inspired by the Roman city of Bath. The design incorporates nine regularly-spaced reflective pools that depict the Roman underfloor heating system known as a hypocaust and serve as a reminder of the significance of water in Bath’s history.

Well-defined flower heads and shrubs in the foreground contrast with a hazy backdrop reminiscent of rising steam. Ornamental grasses and flowering perennials feature hidden gems of delight that reveal themselves among the planting scheme.

A walkway forms a boundary on two sides of the garden, creating a cut-away floor that displays the hypocaust heating system beneath.

Teddington Gardener

These pages illustrate my love of plants and gardens, design and creative expression - learning more about horticulture and sharing the knowledge. Here you will find a showcase for my own photography, commentary on plants and places visited, horticultural know-how, a dose of inspiration and a seasonal diary for your garden.